How EasyStart enabled Tres Gelee’s expansion in Paris

Paige Mueller grew up in Sacramento, California, and studied Film at the University of California, Santa Barbara before moving to Los Angeles to work in entertainment.

She began her career at MTV as an Assistant Executive Producer, where she developed and sold unscripted television formats. She later joined Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine, rising to Vice President of Development and producing multiple series for Netflix, Apple TV+, HBO Max, and Paramount, including the Emmy-nominated Netflix series Get Organized with The Home Edit. 

After years operating at the highest level of media and brand storytelling, Paige transitioned into entrepreneurship with Tres Gelee, a luxury accessories brand focused on silicone purses and travel handbags. Positioned at the intersection of fashion, design, and functionality, Tres Gelee emphasizes modern materials, distinctive aesthetics, and a direct-to-consumer approach.

Drawing on her background in storytelling, brand development, and consumer positioning, Paige has shaped Tres Gelee’s identity from the ground up, playing a central role in defining the brand’s narrative, go-to-market strategy, and early growth.

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As Tres Gelee began scaling in the United States, the brand encountered a familiar challenge for emerging consumer labels. The U.S. luxury and accessories market is highly competitive, with rising customer acquisition costs and crowded distribution channels making sustainable growth increasingly capital-intensive. At the same time, evolving trade conditions and import-related costs added pressure to operating budgets, limiting the feasibility of expanding through traditional, office-led international setups.

Europe, and France in particular, emerged as a strategic next step. France sits at the center of the global fashion and luxury ecosystem, with direct access to buyers, retailers, manufacturers, and press. For a brand built on design, material innovation, and positioning, establishing a presence in France offered a natural gateway to European expansion. Paige, as the brand’s founder and creative driver, was the obvious person to lead this effort.

However, being physically present on the ground was not straightforward. While Tres Gelee could begin testing European demand remotely, building relationships with distributors, retailers, and partners required extended time in France. Paige’s role demanded in-person engagement to support early traction, brand positioning, and market entry.

This created a structural constraint. Without an appropriate immigration framework, she could not legally operate in France beyond short-term stays, limiting her ability to execute on the brand’s European strategy. Like many founders expanding from the U.S. into Europe, Paige found herself in a gray zone: not a traditional employee, but also not fitting neatly into standard visa categories.

French immigration pathways for entrepreneurial profiles are nuanced. The Entrepreneur Visa is designed for exactly this type of situation, but accessing it requires a clear business structure, precise positioning of the project, and alignment between immigration requirements and real commercial activity. Without that clarity, the risk was either delaying expansion or moving forward under uncertainty, both costly outcomes for a growing brand operating with finite resources.

For Paige, immigration became a personal bottleneck directly tied to Tres Gelee’s European ambitions. Resolving it was essential to establishing a lean, compliant presence in France and unlocking the next phase of the brand’s growth.

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Everything changed when Paige heard about EasyStart. After hearing that another founder with a comparable background had secured a French Entrepreneur Visa in a matter of days, she booked a call with the EasyStart team to assess her options.

It quickly became clear that the Entrepreneur Visa was the right pathway. What differentiated EasyStart was its strong reputation within the startup and founder ecosystem, its clear and realistic assessment of Paige’s profile, and its ability to manage the entire immigration process end to end. The team provided structured guidance, precise positioning of her project, and ongoing support throughout the application.

Despite the doubts created by conflicting information and negative anecdotes she had encountered elsewhere, Paige’s application moved forward efficiently. Her Entrepreneur Visa was approved within one week of submission, allowing her to operate in France with legal certainty and support Tres Gelee’s European expansion without delay.

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Living in France allowed Paige to embed herself directly in the local fashion, retail, and luxury ecosystem in a way that would not have been possible remotely. Being physically present enabled faster relationship-building and real-time market understanding, both critical when entering a new geography.

“Being in person in France, I can gain direct access to French distributors and retailers that I might otherwise not get elsewhere. As a founder looking to enter a new market, being here multiplies your access and network by 10x and allows you to meet potential partners and customers at in-person events”, Paige explained. For Paige, the Entrepreneur Visa became an operational asset rather than a mere administrative formality. It gave her the stability and freedom of movement needed to support Tres Gelee’s European ambitions without friction. More broadly, her experience reflects a challenge faced by many founders and senior operators navigating global mobility for themselves and their teams. While immigration to France can be complex, it does not have to be a blocker.

Following this experience, Paige identified EasyStart as a trusted mobility partner she can rely on going forward. Whether supporting Tres Gelee’s continued European expansion, exploring long-term residency options, or relocating future team members, EasyStart remains a relevant solution as she builds and scales her brand across borders.

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